John Seigenthaler will be back next weekend. I'll be sitting-in for him again tonight.

Last Saturday on this broadcast we were reporting the "day after" political reaction and fallout to the surprise resignation of Republican Congressman Mark Foley over inappropriate emails he sent to a former Congressional page.  It was clear even then that political battle lines were being drawn. Now, a week later, with more pages, more e-mails, and a flurry of political charges and corresponding damage control in high-gear, we are getting some hard data on just what all this may be costing the Republican party.  The headlines from a brand new Newsweek poll spell trouble for the GOP.  Tonight, now 31 days from the midterm election, NBC's Chip Reid will look at the issues that may be turning the course of this campaign late in the game, and how both parties' are playing it.

Also, while October 7th may not be a date that stands out in the minds of most Americans, it marks one of the defining moments of our post 9/11 world. It was on this date in 2001, the United States led the invasion of Afghanistan.

It was a direct response to the September 11th attacks, and marked the "first shots" in the President's declared war on terror.  The war in Afghanistan has in many ways become the forgotten war, and doesn't get nearly the attention that the conflict in Iraq does.  That is in part because it has not been as costly to the U.S., but also because it is often thought of as the war that was fought and won.  In fact, the U.S. did quickly topple the ruling Taliban government, and severely damaged al-Qaida and its terror training infrastructure. But as Jim Miklaszewski will report tonight, total victory is proving elusive.  Just today in separate incidents, two freelance German journalists were killed in Afghanistan, as well as a NATO solider.  The latest victims of a rising wave of violence in the country. Tonight we'll look at where things stand five years after the war on terror began.

We're also covering the return of the evacuees after that huge chemical plant fire in North Carolina and the christening of the Navy's newest aircraft carrier that brought President's Bush 41 and 43 together in Virginia today.  But only one of them tonight can claim to be the ship's namesake. 

I hope you can join us tonight for Nightly News.

Hundreds of you e-mailed us or posted comments asking how you can help the Amish community recover in Lancaster Co, Pa. Here are a variety of options:

Mennonite Central Committee
21 S. 12th St.
P.O. Box 500
Akron, PA 17501
(717) 859-1151

Mennonite Disaster Service
1018 Main Street
Akron, PA 17501
(717) 859-2210

Tax-deductible donations can be made to both organizations. You can contribute online or by mail. If sending a check, write "Amish School Recovery Fund" in the memo line.

To specifically help shooting victims and their families, two funds have been established.

Nickel Mines Children's Fund
1082 Georgetown Road
Paradise, PA 17562
Donations can also be made in person at the Coatesville Savings Bank, Bank of Lancaster County, Susquehanna Bancshares, Ephrata National Bank, and National Penn Bancshares's banking divisions: The Peoples Bank of Oxford, FirstService Bank and National Penn Bank.

Nickel Mines School Victims Fund
Anabaptist Foundation
C/O: HomeTowne Heritage Bank
P.O. Box 337
Strasburg, PA 17579

The Amish community also requested a fund be set up to help the family of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the 32-year-old milk truck driver who shot the girls. Donations can be made in person at any Coatesville Savings Bank branch.
Roberts Family Fund
Coatesville Savings Bank
1082 Georgetown Road
Paradise, PA 17562

As I foreshadowed on this morning's Early Nightly, this could be the first time in five nights when the lead story switches from domestic (the Amish murders and the Capitol Hill Page scandal) to foreign (Iraq). The Iraq story has picked up prominence based on this recent and horrible run of violence that has taken close to two dozen American lives in just the past few days, AND the intelligence that our reporters are picking up. We'll cover all three topics tonight. 

Also this evening: two stories that are part of our ongoing series of reports: the "Homefront" segment tonight features Mike Taibbi, who will tell us about an interesting and unusual group of exceedingly patriotic Americans. Also, since it's Friday, it's time for "Making a Difference." Producer Shauna Alami blogged about it below, but it's a story you'll want to see on the air.

We'll show you what happened overnight in North Carolina that has left so many people in shelters or with relatives tonight, and we'll look at the sudden turnaround by the Governor of California. That is: Arnold WAS doing better politically... until some recent remarks about immigrants. Can he survive this, too? It's all part of our look at California politics in the era of the superstar.

LOOSE ENDS, CON'T.
Now to a bunch of things that don't fit any specific category:

Did anyone else notice the quiet mini-bombshell dropped by 41 last night on LKL? Former President Bush told Larry that former President Clinton recently dropped by the White House for a "quiet" lunch with President Bush. Realizing perhaps he'd just said something that wasn't known, the former President added that the lunch had been "off the record." Later, there wasn't a dry eye in the house (at least our house) when 41 started reminiscing about his mother, and talking about his own mortality. He is 82 years old and the class of his generation.

How about the page one photo in today's Washington Post? Would they publish that same photo, showing open grave(s) and mounds of dirt, at Arlington National Cemetery? Was anyone offended by it? The photo I mentioned here yesterday (which we deemed too private and chose not to use) was actually on page one of my edition of today's New York Times. It was a judgment call and I'm not making any judgments.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Hundreds of you have e-mailed us wanting to know how to reach out or contribute to the Amish community. We have done some digging and our blog editor will post contact information for a few organizations a little later this evening. Thank you for your generosity.

We're going to be kicking off a new blog feature on Monday that takes advantage of our vast NBC Nightly News tape archives, and our staff. Not only have we recorded the momentous events of the past several decades, many of my colleagues possess the intellectual capital to humanize the story. They COVERED the events and can talk about their recollections. So look for that on Monday.

And for the record: I'll be watching SNL from home this weekend, just like everybody else.

Have a good weekend. We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

We are always looking for good stories for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and the Today Show. For tonight's "Making a Difference," we pulled a story from our own files. Correspondent Rehema Ellis suggested the story about John Beltzer, I wrote the pitch and Nightly News liked it. Ellis had been the correspondent and I had been the producer nine years ago when we did this story for the Today Show. As I recall, a young desk assistant named Dean Arrindell found the story in a newspaper from the Midwest. It was assigned to Ellis and me.

John Beltzer is from Queens, N.Y. He started a non-profit organization called Songs of Love as a tribute to his twin Julio, who had also been a singer/songwriter before committing suicide at age 24. The idea for the foundation came to Beltzer while walking down the street one day near his home. His twin had written a song entitled "Songs of Love."  Beltzer called St. Jude's Hospital in Tennessee and asked for the names of six seriously ill children. He sent them personalized songs within 10 days. About a week later, he got a call from a little girl who said, "thank you for my song." Beltzer said he hung up and cried for 30 minutes. At that moment he knew he had found his life's mission.

When we first met Beltzer in 1997, Songs of Love was barely a year old and 400 songs had been written. Today the organization is 10 years old and 10,000 songs have gone to sick children around the country, even in different languages to children overseas!

Beltzer has an army of volunteer songwriters and singers. The children, their families or the hospital staff fill out a profile sheet listing family names, friends, pets, hobbies. The songwriters use the information to produce a one-of-a-kind, individualized, personalized song. Children get the song on a CD with the lyrics.

While working on this story, I had the opportunity to observe many children receive their songs at home or in a hospital. It is hard for the camera to capture the joy and excitement. Every child wants to hear the song again. Parents cry. Children smile. It's wonderful to witness.  Many write letters thanking Beltzer and his non-profit foundation. Some report playing the song to help them cope with a painful treatment or to lift their spirits when they are down. For those who don't survive, parents report they've played the song at the child's funeral, sometimes as the eulogy.

John Beltzer thought he would be a star as a performer. Now he feels his talents are best used helping seriously ill children. "Songs for Love" relies on donations. Beltzer has gotten big names on some songs - Billy Joel, Nancy Sinatra, David Lee Roth, Michael Bolton. He dreams of having Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder sing a song for a sick child. 

The 10,000th song went to Saeed Boynes, a 14-year-old who has sickle cell anemia and lives in the Bronx. Beltzer wrote the song with backup by Angela Workman, a former singer with Ray Charles. The chorus was sung by the audience at a Black Eyed Peas concert. 

Beltzer's ultimate dream is ambitious: No more sick children. Until then, he plans to continue writing and singing his "Songs of Love."He welcomes your e-mails: john@songsoflove.org.

Brian checks in after the morning editorial meeting, with more discussion about the images NBC News chose not to air last night that major newspapers chose to print this morning.

Click here to watch the vlog.

After months of difficult negotiations, the U.S. has reached an agreement with European countries that allows federal agents to get a larger amount of data about passengers on flights to the U.S. and to share that information with U.S. intelligence agencies.

Shortly after the aborted London plot was revealed, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for quick action on an agreement to let the U.S. share what's called Passenger Name Record data. It includes the name and address of the passenger, but also how the ticket was booked, form of payment, phone numbers, and sometimes parts of the travel itinerary.

While U.S. Customs agents were allowed to receive this information in the past, they were restricted in what they could do with it. They could not routinely share it with U.S. intelligence agencies, which vastly limited the ability to see whether, for example, a single phone number or credit card known to be used by terrorists in the past had been used to book tickets.

"The new flexibility will apply to agencies within DHS as well as to the Department of Justice, the FBI, and other agencies with counter-terrorism responsibilities. Sharing will be allowed for the investigation, analysis, and prevention of terrorism and related crimes," Chertoff said in a statement this morning.

While Speaker Hastert may have viewed or intended today's statement/news conference with a certain "that's that" finality, it appears the damage will continue to fall all around him.  One prominent Republican described a party in "free fall" to me today, a House of Representatives in need of entirely fresh management -- and I was reminded that if all goes according to schedule, Congressman Foley will emerge from therapy right before election day.  That might generate a little bit of news coverage. I also note that today's Washington Post printed some of the offensive message traffic.

This is a nasty story, both in terms of the material in the public domain and the damage it has already caused to private citizens. We have carefully chosen whatever small bits of text we have aired from this case -- based on our feeling that our viewers fully understand what's going on here, and an excess of this sort of thing crosses a line during a dinner-hour evening newscast. We have a decency obligation to our audience, something I remember well from trying to raise young children during the Lewinsky matter.  Our children became accustomed to my own broadcast being muted during any discussion of that topic. We'll cover the political fallout from all of this again tonight.

With equal sensitivity, we will cover a sad day in Amish country.  The Amish were more than gracious today in allowing members of the media to take videotape and still pictures of a specific funeral procession by horse and buggy. The producer of tonight's piece chose against using a still photo that was taken at a gravesite, showing assembled mourners dressed in black.  While it is perfectly legal to use, it wouldn't be right, and she made the right call.  It's another case where we have more than enough material to tell the story. People understand the sadness, and there is a great well of sympathy for what the sturdy Amish people are going through right now. As I intend to say on the air tonight: we have all had quite a lesson in their ways, for the worst of reasons.

Tonight we will note a grim anniversary from five years ago that is often forgotten in discussions of the war on terrorism. Our "Homefront" series of reports will continue tonight as well. And this evening, we will have a look at the great Matriarch of America's Royal Family. Apparently, Rose Kennedy never threw anything away, and the historical record is all the better for it. Courtesy the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, we will look at the life of this iconic American woman -- a story told in cards, letters, diaries and scraps of paper.

Now comes a departure for me. Co-workers have been coming in from outside all day, saying, "you must go out there...it's a sparkling, beautiful day outside." This has developed into one of those days when I don't set foot outdoors until I leave the office after the broadcast. But I promised our senior producer Tracey Lyons that I would sample the outdoors. So if you see a man wearing sunglasses and dressed like Walter Mondale standing outside 30 Rock in the next few minutes, that would be me.  Then it's back inside to get this broadcast on the air. We hope you can join us tonight.

Brian is in New York today, but a good portion of his thoughts -- along with those of many folks around the country -- are in Washington, where the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal continues. The big question: will Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert survive? Tonight's broadcast will have the latest news from Capitol Hill.

Also on tap for tonight's broadcast: more from our 'Homefront' series and a heartwarming story about Rose Kennedy and her knack for never throwing anything away, including thousands of letters between her and her children.

Click here to see today's vlog.

When you get to be a certain age -- which I have and I admit to -- you find yourself writing obits for friends of many decades.

Two weeks ago it was for the legendary Gordon Manning, broadcast executive par excellence.

Today it is for R.W Apple, known to almost everyone as Johnny, who died Wednesday and was in so many ways the gold standard for journalists. After an early start in broadcast news -- 1963 with NBC and the Huntley-Brinkley report -- he went back to his first loves: the written word and the New York Times. 

He was one of the first of the really prescient Vietnam war reporters in 1966. He saw that war for what it was -- a quagmire -- and he said so.  Then he became THE must-read/must-know political reporter if covering politics was what you did. He just knew how it worked. Knew it.

I was lucky enough to meet and become friendly with Johnny in 1971.  We lived in the same apartment complex in Washington, D.C. I was a young press secretary for a presidential candidate and Johnny took my wife and me under his wing, taught us how the capital worked, taught me politics from the ground up, taught me to understand why my candidate had no shot.  The nomination, followed by the election debacle, proved him (as we always argued) only half right. It was one of the few times he wasn't 100 percent right, which he hated.

Meals with Johnny were legendary.  Best food.  Best wine.  Best talk.  Hours long.  Good that my wife and I could walk home.  Driving after Dine Chez Apple was, as Johnny would say, "not on."

After I abandoned politics and my candidate and started producing political coverage for another network, we stayed in touch across the years -- bumped into each other on campaign buses; in convention cities; in airports; and, of course, in restaurants. If you wanted to know what was going on, you had to find Johnny.

Great man.  Great Reporter.  Great writer.  Great raconteur.  Not much left to say other than if you care about reporting and writing, read R.W. Apple. And if you want to know where the best restaurants are anywhere on this planet, read him too. You'll leave whatever page he wrote with a smile and know more. 

I promise.

Read Jeff's obituary for Gordon Manning on TVWeek.com

If there's one truth I've learned in journalism it's that you often get your best sound bites where you least expect it. So when a group of people sat down in Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan on Oct. 18, 2000, to watch a presidential debate and then comment for one R.W. Apple, I was there to observe and learn as a student, but technically I was just there to pour the coffee. I didn't know at the time that the man moderating the discussion after one of the debates between Al Gore and now President Bush had done more in journalism than I could ever imagine or aspire to. I didn't know he had a tireless appetite for news, specifically politics, and later, food and wine. I couldn't know that only one election cycle later I would study him almost exclusively among the giants of political reporters to prepare for my turn as a "boy on the bus" for NBC News during the 2004 presidential primaries.

Johnny Apple asked a lot of questions that night, but he listened just as intently. He got thoughtful and honest responses from around the room, but he probed deeper into insights and asked remarkable follow-up questions that elicited sometimes fun, sometimes challenging remarks. I remember being amazed at his ease and handle of the room. I listened intently, almost spilling coffee more than once. At one point he turned to me and asked me what I thought, which was a surprise to not only me but also to my employer. Apple wanted a female student's opinion and it was noticeably absent. Without knowing his remarkable career, I was not too phased to tell him exactly what I thought about both Vice President Gore and then-Gov. Bush's performance. What I didn't know was the breadth and reach of this man's words. Specifically, that it would end up in a stylish but cutting news analysis on the front page for the New York Times and my U-of-M inbox would be flooded with opinions from strangers for quite some time. His political reporting, I later learned, was thorough, relentless, often passionate and at times ferocious. His career was exceptional in every sense. He was a tremendous influence on me from that point on, but I never thanked him for it and I should have. I have often told people who ask me about the campaign trail to study his style, his career, his prose. Learn the good and the bad. The education is well worth it.  2008 won't be the same...

Today, with tears in his eyes, a minister described to me seeing an Amish mother embalming her 13-year-old daughter Marian, who was shot in the forehead at the school. She was carefully and lovingly dressing her girl in white, even putting the cotton in her nose.

All around the family watched, crying softly, even the little children, who listened as their grandfather told them not to hate the gunman who did this. 

"Forgive," he was instructing them. "Forgive, as God forgives us..."

Rev. Rob Schenck called it the most powerful moment he's seen in 25 years as a minister.

This forgiveness seems especially incredible coming on the same day the coroner is reported to have counted almost 20 bullet wounds in the body of a 7-year-old girl.

An Amish woman told me perhaps the good that might come of this tragedy.

"We can tell people about Christ and actually show you in our walk that we forgive, not just say it but in our walk of life," she said. "You know you have to live it. You can't just say it. "

I realize I did not know what forgiveness was until now.

Editor's note: Ann will report more tonight on the grace and dignity she has observed among the Amish this week.

Two major domestic stories continue to dominate our agenda. While a wall of privacy came down over Amish country today, as wakes were held in solemn private homes, the drumbeat of scandal continued to resonate from Washington, with questions continuing to swirl about the longevity of the Speaker of the House. Will Dennis Hastert be able to survive this? We will cover all of it tonight -- including the impact the latter story will have on the election, a little more than a month away.

A heads-up on a special piece tonight, as part of our "Homefront" series: Janet Shamlian has a superb and emotional report on a group of volunteers who have vowed that no American in uniform should pass through their city without feeling loved. We have an amazing testimonial on a fatal mid-air incident that was in the news this past weekend.

We also have an important piece of reporting tonight from Richard Engel. It's on American involvement in Iraq (Richard is coming off an embed with U.S. forces) and it may open some eyes.

About your e-mails: to the person who wrote about our (the news media's) obsession with and concentration on the Dow as a marker of "the market," point taken. I'm aware that others (especially those in the business) much prefer other indexes, like the S&P, as barometers. The Dow has become a standard of measurement... a constant... though I'm not opposed to revisiting the emphasis we place on it.  To whoever wrote me about the tie I was wearing last night: Can we please keep this about news? Eyes on the ball, folks, not on my choice of neckwear. There are too many important things to talk about right now. Besides, I don't comment on your clothing.

A big welcome to Jane Arraf whose work we've admired on CNN for years. She is our newest correspondent in Baghdad and I note she's been blogging away. She is a total pro doing brave work.

Tonight we will also remember Johnny Apple (officially R. W. Apple, Jr.) of the New York Times, as I have been doing all day. I had the great good fortune to read his work since the age of 14. I had the further joy of working next to him, watching him practice his craft, and better yet: dining with him. He was, as one of his journalistic heirs Todd Purdum points out in the superb, honest and poetic Times obituary today, "Churchillian" in every way [NYTimes.com login required for link]. He could write soaring prose, he could dispense the Conventional Wisdom with elan, and man, could he eat. He knew every place to eat in the world. I watched him eat and drink his way through much of Ireland, and it was a sight to behold. And so, in his checked shirts, was Johnny. A veteran has passed from the scene.

I hope you can join us tonight.

Legal experts and former federal prosecutors say it may be difficult to bring federal criminal charges against former Congressman Mark Foley, based on what's publicly known about the e-mails and instant messages he sent.

"To be illegal, the conduct needs to get beyond IM sex chat," says one former prosecutor who worked on child exploitation cases. "Sex talk with a minor is not prosecutable."

So far, say current law enforcement officials, it's not clear any federal laws were violated. While it may surprise some people, it turns out that talking trash to a minor is not automatically illegal.

One federal law criminalizes "enticement," which it defines as inducing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. But there's a catch:  for the most part, the age of consent in Washington, D.C., is 16, not 18. So sexual activity with a 16-year-old page in Washington is not a crime, assuming it is consensual. However, the age of consent in Florida and California is 18.

A separate federal law makes it illegal to help a minor travel to engage in illegal sex and also makes it illegal for an adult to travel to have illegal sex.

As for "cybersex," officials say the kinds of cases that are prosecuted involve sending sexually explicit photos or videos to minors, depicting minors having sex, to break down their inhibitions and try to persuade them to have sex. Those are brought as child pornography cases. And if an adult persuades a minor to get a Web cam and engage in sexual behavior, that can be prosecuted as illegally producing child pornography.

But, based on what's known so far, that's far beyond what Foley was doing, the officials say.

In a special report on MSNBC.com, NBC Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reviews the five years since U.S. and international forces drove the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan. Today, as the strength of the Taliban and al-Qaida grows again, total victory appears "as distant and remote as the long-embattled nation itself," Jim writes.

As the war on terror struggles on, the question remains: Did the U.S. and its allies do enough?

Read Jim's full report

As the Amish prepare to bury their dead in Pennsylvania, sensitive coverage is on Brian's mind.

Click here for a brief discussion in today's vlog, followed by a preview of a couple stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.

The news from today in Lancaster Co., Pa., has to do with how carefully-planned the attack was.  And all any of us can think about is how sad it makes us... how our hearts go out to the good people who sent their children to that school.

Tonight we'll talk about what to tell the kids. We'll investigate how it is a member of society can lead a "normal" life one day and become a violent killer the next. We'll have complete coverage of the story -- along with the spreading page scandal on the Hill and the pressure on the Speaker of the House that intensified today. We will take note of the fact that the Dow closed at a new record high today (with some help from our friends at CNBC, for whom this is a big day at the office). Also tonight, David Gregory reports as part of our "Homefront" series on the increasing number of women who are fighting and dying in this nation's wars. 

In today's post, I'd like to address some of the superb and well thought-out e-mails I've received here over the last 24 hours.

An e-mailer from Boston writes: "Leave the Amish be." Normally, I would completely agree with that statement. They never hurt anyone. It is their desire to live a quiet life away from outside influences. It is our job to cover this story for a large audience of viewers. As I said at the top of last night's broadcast, however, yesterday, an awful part of our modern American society visited THEM. We can't change the fact that what happened in that one-room schoolhouse is news. It's a story we must cover, and many are interested in the details. I hope that the swelling number of media converging on that town have the class and good sense to do their jobs while keeping a respectful distance and maintaining a professional and courteous demeanor. The Amish are a private people, and they have their own ways to handle life's exigencies and tragedies. Our charge is to find the right balance between covering a story and intruding on a way of life.

To all those who have written to express their fears about "what our world is coming to..." or their fears about the safety of our children: I'm with you, and I have the same concerns. I fear there was nothing that could have stopped this man in Pennsylvania -- random and horrible crimes are like that. I fear as well for the irrational fears that some children will now have about their safety at school. As parents, we just have to do the best we can at conveying the message that our children are loved, and that the adults in their lives will do their best to ensure their safety.

To "Missy," from Slidell, La., I mourn with you on several fronts: for what happened to your community, for your friend who lost her son, and in our mutual sadness over this event in Amish country. One fact that emerged from yesterday: their township has no police force, because they had no crime. Until yesterday. The State Police response time of nine minutes was amazing, given the ground they must patrol in that part of Pennsylvania.

To the e-mailer who wrote about reporter accountability: I might ask Lisa Myers or other members of our Investigative Unit to take on that topic, as that is a concern with so many of the stories they file. The answer is not as easy as tossing around "the First Amendment" and it's often a complicated equation.

To the e-mailer who wrote me about Neil Armstrong: good for you for knowing and mentioning the famous urban myth, "Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky." While I agree with you that we should leave it to others to research (it's decidedly not family material), I was actually at a dinner once here in New York, seated alongside Mr. Armstrong (one of the high points of my life, actually), when someone brought up the subject.  As I recall, he laughed it off while seeming to enjoy the sport of it.  He is an enormously private man... as modest as anyone I've ever met. In this era of super-celebrity, where the media hang on each of Terrell Owens' statements, it is remarkable that this man with such a huge role in our history has never once capitalized on who he is or what he achieved. He was the hero of my younger years and remains one of my heroes today.

While we're on the topic of genuine American heroes: I attended a board meeting of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation over the weekend in Boston. In the coming months, I will unabashedly use this space to draw attention to these 111 men who are recipients of our nation's highest military honor. I was honored to be in the presence of 61 of them this past weekend. If you ever truly want to feel inferior to others in terms of service, character or bravery, I suggest attending one of their gatherings. After I called the roll of the 61 recipients who were present, the sustained applause that followed was the longest I have ever witnessed, anywhere. I couldn't avoid making the observation that the last time that large a group of brave men assembled in New England, the Continental Army was formed.

We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

School safety is likely to be the lead story again tonight, as Americans consider one question in the wake of yesterday's tragic school shootings in Pennsylvania: Could it happen anywhere?

Click here for more from Brian in today's vlog.

We've also put together some resources for parents who might need help talking to their kids about the tragedy. Click here for those.

One picture stood out as we watched the coverage of the tragedy in Lancaster County, Pa., today. It showed the surviving children from the schoolhouse, some of the boys wearing their broad-brimmed hats, the girls in simple dresses, sitting obediently on the lawn. The parent in me just wanted to swoop in and scoop them all up and tell them everything was going to be OK. It's an awful coincidence that the top of our broadcast tonight will contain a combination of two stories that speak to our children at risk. In addition to this sick and awful tragedy in Pennsylvania, we will cover the continuing fallout from the Congressman Foley e-mail scandal. It would be a tragedy if this suppressed or affected interest or participation in the Page Program -- which for so many decades has been such a wonderful program for the kinds of students who are drawn to Washington. Beyond the damage to the now-former congressman, we must fear for what this will do to the alleged victims of his advances. These stories combined are a lot to take in (and we're aware of course that we air during what we used to call "the dinner hour" in American households, with children often near the TV) and are a sad reflection of today's news.

Now that the 60 Minutes segment has aired (as have denials as to its contents) the fallout from the Woodward book continues. Some of the knock-downs of the book's contents are themselves being knocked-down... Andrea Mitchell will sweep it all up for us tonight.

Richard Engel was embedded on patrol with U.S. forces in Iraq today (just another day at the office), and will report on that experience for us tonight. And we kick off a new series, "The Homefront," with a report on the Yankton, S.D. National Guard Charlie Battery. They were activated 500 days ago, and came home from Iraq... missing a few good men. It's a poignant story by our own Bob Faw and I urge you to see it.

Interesting nugget from the papers over the weekend: for the Supreme Court term that starts officially today (while oral argument is put off a day for the Jewish holiday), the justices have hired 37 clerks between them. They number 30 men and 7 women. Each Justice is allowed a maximum of four clerks. Court buffs may recall that Justice Ginsburg, who has been a champion of women clerks over the years (as has Justice Breyer), was rejected for a clerkship by Justice Frankfurter, even though her application came highly recommended to the Court.

While the video threatens to jump the shark if it airs once more on MSNBC, thanks to those of you who watched and have commented on my attempt to embarrass myself and bring shame to my family this weekend on SNL. It was a thrill, and I'm indebted to Lorne Michaels and the superb cast.

Back to the day job. A decidedly sober day of news. We hope you can join us tonight.

"A full boat" of news... that's how Brian characterizes this busy Monday. We'll tell you about the latest revelations in the Mark Foley scandal and why Yankton, S.D., was such an emotional place recently. Click here to watch the vlog.

And if you missed it, click here to watch Brian's appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

Good day.  John Seigenthaler has the night off and I'll be sitting-in for him.
On this evening's broadcast we'll examine the tape that emerged today of 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta. On it we see Atta and another hijacker, as well as Osama bin Laden.  Beyond the disturbing fact that we see Atta offering his will and preparing for the attacks, the timing of the tape is significant.  It was shot 20 months before the attacks.  Lisa Myers will report tonight on what new light this tape may be shedding on our understanding of the plot.

We're also following developments in the e-mail scandal involving now former Representative Mark Foley.  Democrats are suggesting a cover-up.  This is beginning to look like a brewing political storm and we will have a full report on the questions being asked tonight.

That spinach E. coli scare has apparently sparked increasing interest in those farmer's markets that have popped up in many cities in towns. Our Rehema Ellis took a trip to one such market to find out why.

And yes, by now you've probably seen it on the Internet. But we will be closing the broadcast tonight with a clip from Brian William's surprise appearance at the "Weekend Update" desk on Saturday Night Live last night. Brian showed both grace and, if I may say, brilliant comic timing. But as Brian told Seth Meyers in last night's skit... "don't patronize me," and so I'll let you be the judge as to how he did.

Hope you'll join us tonight.